Group offers 'liberty' from same-sex attraction

With a jacket casually draped over a T-shirt and sporting stylishly cropped hair, 49-year-old Leslie Lung looks markedly different from his younger self.

"It's been a journey from that all the way to where I am today," the Singaporean advertising creative consultant said with a slight smile as he pointed to two photographs taken when he was 20.

We think that it is something that can be managed, it can be something that can be overcome, and there are people who have successfully come out of it

The pictures show Lung made up as a woman in a form-fitting black tube top, long wavy hair tumbling over his shoulder and a glittering choker adorning his neck.

They are among the illustrations in a hardcover book written by Lung titled Freedom of Choice: Short Stories of Freedom from Sexual Bondage.

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Describing himself as having spanned "the entire gamut" of relationships, Lung is now the executive director of Liberty League, a controversial Singapore support group which says it aims to help people who want to overcome "same-sex attractions".

"We think that it is something that can be managed, it can be something that can be overcome, and there are people who have successfully come out of it," said Lung, who considered sex-change surgery when he was younger.

Set up in 2004, Liberty League is staffed by 10 volunteers and financed by grants from the government and private donors.

Singapore gay rights activists object to Liberty League's activities.

"They present the idea that being gay is bad and therefore you should change to straight," said Alex Au, one of the founders of gay rights group People Like Us.

"But that already is creating stigma. Why do you even present the message?" Au said Liberty League's ideals were "suspiciously similar" to those of Exodus International, a US fundamentalist Christian ministry actively involved in reforming homosexuals.

Lung says Liberty League is secular and not against gays, bisexuals and transgender people, but he draws the line at men having sex with men.

"It is a biological impossibility. It is impossible for two people of the same gender to consummate physical relationship," he insisted.

Despite greater tolerance for gays in recent years Singapore has refused to rescind an old law making consensual sex between men a crime.

"Singapore is basically a conservative society. The family is the basic building block of this society. It has been so and by policy we have reinforced this and we want to keep it so," Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told parliament in 2007.

"By 'family' in Singapore, we mean one man one woman, marrying, having children and bringing up children within that framework of a stable family unit."

Lung says Liberty League only caters to people who seek help.

"We're not here to go and convert people, we're not here to say 'oh you must not do this and do that,'" he said.

"Some people who want to continue with the lifestyle, that's fine with us. Some people who don't want to, I think that there should be opportunities for them to explore the other option."

Liberty League conducts weekly group sessions where participants speak about their sexual preferences and dilemmas, said Lung. It can also refer participants to professional counsellors.

Group members typically consist of people attracted to others of the same gender, but those grappling with other problems such as sex addiction are also allowed to take part, he said.

"We find that this has been very, very helpful in opening up people's minds," Lung said.

"So often when people come, they think, oh this is a male issue, this is a female issue, but when they hear different perspectives then they come to understand actually it's a very universal thing."

Lung refused to reveal client numbers, but said "there's more than enough to keep us occupied and busy."

44 comments so far

If a person can freely choose to change their gender, why not their sexual orientation? There are numerous accounts of people who have done just that with the help of counselling. Gay Activist groups and their supporters fear groups like Liberty League and Exodus International because of their success in demonstrating that sexual orientation can change. Au's objection that it creates a stigma that being gay is bad is ridiculous. Does the man who wants to become a woman create a stigma that being a man is bad? Keep up the good work Liberty League and don't bow to the mad political correctness which so pervades our society!

Commenter

Frank

Date and time

December 31, 2010, 2:56PM

Hey, Age: How about taking the time to acknowledge that many people who are being tormented by bigotry and bullying might need to hear that the view of Lung and his organisation are just one side of things? Anyone out there reading this who feels that they don't want to have to hide or change, have a look at: http://www.itgetsbetter.org/

Commenter

Fran

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

December 31, 2010, 3:02PM

Really Frank? We choose our sexual orientation? The "numerous accounts of people who have done just that with the help of counselling" all turn out to be fraudulent. Not just that, but sheer dangerous nonsense. Recents cases in the UK and the USA involving so-called 'professional conversion-therapists' and 'group counselling' highlight the mental danger of changing sexual orientation. The BMA has been called in on numerous occasions to enforce its rulings that this sort of treatment is both dangerous and criminally negligent of Doctors to become involved with.Frank, you should be ashamed of yourself to write letters on comments boards about subjects that you obviously know nothing about, least of all care for the people involved. As for the snipe about 'political correctness' - if you believe that accepting ones sexuallity is a political act then you are a very silly man indeed.

Commenter

Jay

Location

Surry Hills

Date and time

December 31, 2010, 3:14PM

oh come on Frank, who chooses their gender? transgendered people dont choose a gender, they have surgery to try and correct something which they believe was a fundamental flaw in their physical body. Your comments have no standing whatsoever mate. "does the man who wants to become a woman create a stigma that being a man is bad?" - dude, wtf? please put some thought into what you write before you post it for everyone to read please.

Commenter

Foro

Location

Sydney

Date and time

December 31, 2010, 3:24PM

Interesting it's not a religious organisation (most of them are), but I agree with Au that it's better for people to accept who they are than try to repress it.

Commenter

B3n

Location

Sydney

Date and time

December 31, 2010, 3:29PM

These people have been around for years without any true success. The treatment is not scientifically valid. Heterosexual and homosexual people are born with gender preference. Ask these groups to show the number of suicides that occurred after the patients underwent the "Cure".

Commenter

Maddog

Location

USA

Date and time

December 31, 2010, 3:30PM

This is sad - and dangerous. It makes as much sense as trying to turn a heterosexual person gay. And remember that being gay is illegal in Singapore and this group has received sponsorship from the Singaporean government. It is a farce.

Commenter

Brendan

Location

Sydney

Date and time

December 31, 2010, 3:32PM

This is just another dopey religious attempt to interfere in the lives of adults, despite any assertions to the contrary from "Liberty" League. It may come as a shock breeders, but the vast majority of us gay people are happy with the way we are, unlike you lot. After all, if YOU LOT were happy with your own lives you wouldnt constantly bang on about people and things that are NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. Comprende? Oh and as for this obsession with gay sex breeders, that is just WEIRD in itself.

Commenter

David

Date and time

December 31, 2010, 3:33PM

Oh and for the record, thy guy in the picture is obviously one of these bisexuals who has "gone straight". Who is he to judge others LOL?!?!

Commenter

David

Date and time

December 31, 2010, 3:35PM

*YAWN* Yet another group preaching what is supposedly "right" to the rest of us, even though the rest of us are actually entitled to be and do whatever we please - within the law.

Please GO AWAY moralistic fools. Ethical society, science, and the law all disagree with you. You're flogging an invisible dead horse. It's rubbish like this that makes me want to TURN gay, just to help prove that the human experience is still (shockingly!) perfectly valid, regardless who you share your naked wobbly bits with.